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 Welcome to Paradise | The Resort | The Residences | Reservations | About Ambergris Caye | Featured Property | Phase Map  San Pedro 'Town,' Ambergris Caye, Belize, C.A. - Note the term "San Pedro Town." Only recently did this laid-back island community officially attain "town" status from the Belizian government.. Since the ancient Mayas counted more than 10,000 inhabitants on Ambergris Caye, it had been termed a fishing/trading "village." Times have changed. The Maya abandoned the Caye around 1000 A.D., leaving an empty island behind. But many Maya ruins can be found, attesting to a dazzling era, when more than 2 million of the incredibly advanced Maya people lived in northern Belize, alone. Ample records track an amazing Maya trading system, extending from Honduras to Mexico and throughout Central America. The island, dubbed "Ambergris Caye" by a generation of English pirates, had once been an important hub in the vast Maya trading network. All things Maya came and went by the Caye. By the 17th century, English, Dutch and French pirates had re-discovered the island, with its placid windward beachfront protected by a legendary barrier reef. At the time, whale residue frequently washed ashore and was prized in the manufacture of European perfume. The pirates called the oily stuff "Ambergris," and it brought a pretty penny abroad. Yet Ambergris Caye played a far more valuable role for the pirate. The island was a most convenient hideout whilst attacking the cumbersome Spanish shipping fleet. Today, we can thank the swashbuckling terror of the high seas for a myriad of shipwrecks littering the nearby ocean floor - yet another compelling lure for the modern scuba diver. And Ambergris Caye has seen many a dramatic turn of fortune. Long after the pirate met his (or her) nemesis, present-day San Pedro was eventually re-settled in 1848, by refugees of violent wars on the nearby Yucatan Peninsula. A few dozen Mestizo families found refuge in this secluded paradise. Yet within a few decades, the English would return as wealthy businessmen, the result being development of a local fishing industry and coconut plantations. (The coconut palms themselves were originally introduced by the Spaniards and thrive on Ambergris Caye today.) Source of the island's economic bedrock from the late 19th century until the 1930s, the coconut plantations were systematically dismantled by a rash of hurricanes from the early 40s through the mid-1950s. But by then, local fishermen had discovered a new kind of treasure in the sparkling turquoise waters. Once considered a "garbage" fish, lobster was finding its way to gourmet dining tables worldwide. The iridescent ocean around Ambergris Caye was - and remains - teeming with this seaborne delicacy. And while the lobster grounds still abound, yet another treasure came to town: the skin-diving, snorkeling tourist. Even the thriving conch and lobster trade cannot compete with revenues from incoming visitors. Yet tourism on the Caye is a remarkably recent development in itself. The island's first real inn, the intimate Holiday Hotel, was built in 1965 on a foundation of crushed conch shells. A handful of competitors followed: the Paradise and Coral Beach hotels were later joined by the Victoria House and more. All relatively small, low-key, laid back. In fact, no hotel protrudes above a frothy green horizon of coconut palms. Nor do the hotels harbor more than 90 or so rooms. In fact, most offer far fewer beds. Yet a rough count of 800 rooms among some 50 hotels on Ambergris Caye are more than enough to support a thriving trade in guided tours. Local guides are naturals. After all, deep sea fishing, snorkeling and scuba diving - often for lobster and conch - have long been a way of life for the islanders. Well before a handful of luxury resorts like Sueño del Mar appeared along the white-sandy coastline. Not surprisingly, this tropical paradise has one of the most thriving economies in the country. Along with a couple of newspapers and a local TV station, fax service, cable access, internet, sat-link telephone and broadband capability. Also the country's only hyper baric compression chamber, a boon to visiting divers from around the globe. Now local vision turns to preservation of one of the most dazzling environmental ecologies on the planet - from marine preserves to bird sanctuaries and turtle nesting grounds. The Caye remains, after all, a tropical paradise. One of legend, with a future. |
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